work in progress

Summer Wars Review

I can’t seem to find a suitable picture for this, but I will just go ahead with the review(:

So, Summer Wars is about how this guy, Kenji, accidentally helps to break to security code that protects Oz, a virtual world which everyone in Japan depends on — for business, emails, shopping and more. After finding out that it’s his fault, he tries to save the situation by stopping the evil guy from taking in all the information of the accounts made in Oz. Together with the help of his senior’s family, Takashi, who is also his crush, they try to stop the evil guy.

I ventured into this animation movie because of the excellent impression that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time made on me. You could see the director’s hand in this, and his own style. However, I must admit that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time still remains my favourite out of the two movies. I’m not entirely sure why this is so, but I highly suspect it’s due to the subjects that the movie is centred on. Maybe the movie has deeper meanings like pointing out Japan’s high dependence on Internet and the virtual world, but it’s also presented through the characters playing computer games and fighting in the virtual world with their avatars — and to be honest, I can’t appreciate fighting that much, especially since it’s their avatars.

That being said, it was interesting to see the turn of events and how they planned to defeat the evil monster. The flow was quite good and the conflict was well played. It did capture my attention, and made me stay on to watch even though I may not being to fully appreciate all the fighting. This animation movie also portrays strong familial love between Takashi and her big family, and I guess Kenji learns something from there as well.

SO, after all of that being said, what would be my recommendation to you? I would say, watch it when you have time. It isn’t a must watch, in my opinion, but it will be a good watch for most. Maybe, if fighting and games appeal to you, you might want to check it out — unless you love fighting scenes only for the male characters’ abs, then er, I have nothing to say. (: